Click to viewCNN's iReport loves their citizen journalists so much, they don't even care…
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As soon as the post went up we received some comments and emails accusing Gawker of being homophobic and anti-gay for pointing out that one of the citizen reporters CNN tapped to report about flooding in South Florida did so while taking time out from a hardcore video shoot. Reporting this is not inherently homophobic, it is funny. Why? Because these are the hilarious—and awesome—situations that giant, stodgy news organizations will find themselves in when they farm out news gathering to the people. Instead of closet case Anderson Cooper in his prissy parka trying not to get blown into Oz by a hurricane, we get proudly queer porn impresario Collin O'Neal in a tight wife-beater that he threw on after filming a porn scene. Welcome to the wacky world of crowd-sourcing, old media dinosaurs, where everyone is fit to report no matter who they fucked on camera in the past.

We couldn't be happier that O'Neal (whose real name is Shawn Loftis) was part of CNN's citizen army, and we mean that sincerely. We love porn, and it's wonderful that we live in a world where those who make it can get a story onto CNN, because God knows if a former porn actor (gay, straight, or otherwise) showed up to be on-air talent at the news organization, they would be laughed out of the interview.

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Loftis emailed us today to saw how happy he was about the item and that CNN doesn't care much about his full-time occupation:

I think the story was great and so does my CNN I-Report producer. The negativity comes from the catty queens that put hate comments. Want to know something funny? Many people only knew me as Shawn Loftis not as Collin O'Neal. This media blitz pretty much outted me to many straight people. Guess who gave me a big vote of confidence and told me "kudos"? My straight friends. Want to know who call me a queeny faggot? Gays.

Actually my producer at CNN said I have not violated their terms of use and my iReports are popular and intriguing. They said they will continue to vet my iReports if they are relevant and follow their terms of agreement (do not advertise myself as Collin O'Neal or for any other commercial purpose).

Good for CNN! It seems like they're more accepting than we would give them credit for, even if they would never actually pony up real cash to have a porn star on the payroll.

For all you gays out there, you need to take a deep breath and calm down before lashing out. Just because we point out that someone is an adult film actor does not mean that we think it's a bad thing. We will not gag ourselves when it comes to gay porn stars, Manhunt profiles, sex clubs, three-way relationships, poppers, or all the other dirty little secrets of gay culture that the khaki-clad HRC clones are afraid "the straights" will find out about and use against us to continue depriving us of our civil rights. Until they can deal with those things, they will only be tolerating us, not accepting us, so it's better to just get it out in the open now.

As for my use of the phrase "homosexual pornography," one gay activist hilariously emailed to say, "We don't really use the word 'homosexual' in the gay community anymore, unless it's a joke." Well, looks like he made our point for us! He adds, "You will never hear anyone gay refer to their 'homosexual' friends or 'homosexual' porn." Yes, you will, and it's this one. I'm taking "homosexual" back. Who's with me? Hopefully every "homosexual" with a sense of humor. Everyone gay person is invited to march in my Pride parade, but only the ones who can laugh at themselves will be allowed on my float.